Listen up ;-)

Life and Death on Mars, my December 2023 novel, is now available as an audiobook. Huzzah! The audio version was produced by Tantor, a division of Recorded Books. 

(Tantor is also the Ape-ish word for elephant in the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It beats me if there's any connection.) 

ANYway ... the audio performance is available from Amazon as an Audible.com download, MP3 CD, and standard "audio" CD.

The novel remains available as an ebook -- here's the Kindle edition (you can find other formats on various etail sites) -- and a print edition.

What (beyond the obvious) is Life and Death on Mars about? I'm glad you asked ...

My visit to The Innovation Show

It was recently my privilege to be on The Innovation Show: "an international show for innovators." Host Aidan McCullen and I discussed a lot:

• Augmented humanity
• Cyborgs
• Robots
• Genetic therapy
• Brain/machine interfaces
• Autonomous weapons
• Artificial intelligence
• Super intelligence
• Neural networks
• Dystopia
• The future skills of humanity
• What we (humans) do when everything becomes automated

Let's just say, it was a busy three-quarters hour :-) 

The impetus for this interview? That would be last spring's release of Trope-ing the Light Fantastic: The Science Behind the Fiction. (And in forty-eight minutes, we covered no more than a third of the topics in the book!)

Curious? Then check out the podcast at "The Science behind Science Fiction with Edward M.Lerner: Augmented Humanity, AI, Superintelligence."

Time out(s)

I've opined on this blog that time travel is a science-fictional trope -- but that doesn't mean I disapprove. Tropes endure in literature (and not only in SF) because they support great storytelling. And so, on occasion, I indulge ...

If you visit here from an interest in my SF writing -- or if you're curious about it -- I thought I'd mention my new time-travel novella. (A few years ago I did a time-travel novel: Countdown to Armageddon.  Before that, my time-travel short story "Grandpa?" became the award-winning short film "The Grandfather Paradox.")

Anyway ... "Time Out" will appear in the January/February issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

(Or is appearing. Apropos of time travel, we Analog subscribers already have this issue in hand or e-reader. The cover date is the latest you might expect to encounter the print edition at a bookstore. To further muddle the timeline, in e-book outlets the issue will linger for months after the cover date.)

Betrayer of Worlds

Puppeteers are the sneakiest, most conniving -- and for many SF readers, most fascinating -- aliens in the galaxy. They're certainly the most cowardly. Arguably, they're the most ruthless.

Maybe that's why I so enjoy writing about them. As in -- just released today -- the latest installment in Larry Niven's and my epic Fleet of Worlds series: Betrayer of Worlds.

Since the chain reaction of supernovae at the galactic core sent a trillion Puppeteers aboard the Fleet of Worlds fleeing for their lives, the two-headed aliens have lurched from one crisis to the next ...

Until now, when -- like every Puppeteer's worst nightmare -- past crises have converged.

Sounding off

Last updated April 1, 2025

I'm asked almost as often about the availability of my books in audio formats as about ebooks. So: I've decided to maintain a running list of my titles to which you can listen.

(Because what the heck -- high-tech mayhem, exotic aliens, monomaniacal AIs, and such are sure to enhance any road trip.)

Availability in any audio format often implies a variety of listening options: CDs, tapes (I'm not making this stuff up!), MP3, and other downloads. The links that follow give more information about a particular title. If you click through from my descriptive page to the corresponding Amazon page (or get to a title by way of Ed's Bookstore), the "formats" list, generally near and to the right of the book cover, will list your audio (and other) format options. 

Lerner solos currently in audio format

Probe (1991 [2011 and 2020 reissues])
Moonstruck (2005 [2011 and 2020 reissues])
Small Miracles (2009 [2015 reissue])
InterstellarNet: Origins (2010)
InterstellarNet: New Order (2010)
Energized (2012 [2018 reissue])

Déjà Doomed (2021)  

Life and Death on Mars (2023)

Lerner collaborations in audio format

Fleet of Worlds (2007)
Juggler of Worlds (2008)
Destroyer of Worlds (2009)
Betrayer of Worlds (2010)
Fate of Worlds (2012)